Other Notable Early Persons and Collections
Mr. John Whitehead presented to the society a most valuable herbarium of Cryptogamic Plants on August 12th, 1892, representing the work of a lifetime. The President in accepting the gift said that he would venture to say that for completeness, the collection was without rival in the North of England. This collection consists of nearly 1,200 specimens, most of them collected by Mr. Whitehead himself. It includes 587 species and 145 varieties of British Mosses and 205 species and 20 varieties of British Liverworts. Mr. Whitehead also presented to the Society some 300 Phanerogamic plants not represented in the Nield collection.
Whitehead was born in Dukinfield in 1833 and died in Oldham in 1896. An account of this eminent botanist and member of our society appeared in The Journal of Botany for March, 1897. John Whitehead added much to our knowledge of British mosses and in 1875 collected on Ben Nevis a liverwort new to science. He corresponded with some of the most learned English bryologistsand his name was known to others on the continent. Although mainly interested in mosses be did not confine his attention to them. He was one of a party who first discovered Carex ornithopoda in Britain, and in August, 1883, added Chara braunii to our flora.
He became the first president of the Manchester Cryptogamic Society, and along with Mr. Joseph S. Rowse, was responsible for the Flora of Ashton-u-Lyne and District.
Mr. John Butterworth, F.R.M.S., On the occasion of his death in June, 1900, at the age of 70, the Oldham Chronicle referred to him as cotton expert, scientist, inventor, and author. He was a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and the Royal Microscopical Society, to whom he read a paper in 1896 on a photomicrographic camera he had designed chiefly to facilitate the study of opaque objects, and in particular the study of palaeobotany. For many years he worked as a colleague of Prof. W. C. Williamson in the study of the fossilised plants of the Lancashire and Yorkshire coalfields.
Dr. W. Watson, A.L.S., the well-known lichenologist, was elected an Honorary Member of the society in 1905. Dr. Watson, who before leaving to reside in Somerset had lived in Greenfield, presented to the society a few years ago a manuscript flora of our area.
Mr. Fred Taylor (1871-1949) the distinguished conchologist and ornithologist was elected an Honorary Member in 1903. A fine collection of British land and freshwater shells was presented to the town in 1898.
Mr. Taylor’s collection of eggs of British breeding birds which is one of the finest in the country can be seen at Gallery Oldham along with the above botanical collections and Mr. Nield’s geological collections.
Dr. J. V. Watson, a later president of the society, was well-known for his work on anthropology, and in 1935 printed and published himself a work of over 300 pages, entitled Our Miocene Ancestors.
